Abu Hamza and three other terrorism suspects cannot be extradited to the US
because they face life in jail without parole, the European Court of Human
Rights has ruled.

The court said the sentences would breach the prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment under Article Three of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The judges have asked for further submissions on their preliminary ruling but if they maintain their stance Hamza and the other suspects will have to be released from the maximum security jails where they have been held pending extradition.

Other prisoners in Britain on “whole life tariffs” could also have their sentences reviewed.

The judges have also ruled that prolonged detention in solitary confinement in a US “supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado would breach Article Three.

The court said it wanted to know whether the men would have any real prospect of entering the “step-down programme” in which they would move through different levels of contact with others until they would be suitable for transfer to a normal prison.

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However it said that Abu Hamza would only spend a short period of time in the supermax jail until his health was assessed.

He is blind in one eye, has had both forearms amputated and suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.

But the court dismissed the men’s fears that they would not receive a fair trial because the US court could use information obtained by torture or through plea bargaining.

It also rejected their claim that they could be designated as enemy combatants and could face extraordinary rendition or the death penalty, after diplomatic assurances were received from the US.

The court has asked if the men, once convicted, could have their sentences reduced, and whether the US constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment” was the equivalent of Article Three.

Both sides have been invited to submit further written observations with the British Government submitting their comments by September 2.

In the meantime, the court said, it would continue a ruling that the applicants should not be extradited while the cases were still being examined.

It has taken the court two years to reach its preliminary decision and the case is likely to drag on much longer.

Each of the accused is suspected of membership of al-Qaeda or of having aided and abetted acts of international terrorism.

The men were indicted on various terrorism charges in the US between 2004 and 2006.

Babar Ahmad and Seyla Talha Ahsan, who ran a website from Tooting, South London, are accused of providing support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country.

Hamza has been charged with 11 different counts of criminal conduct related to the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998, advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001 and conspiring to establish a jihad training camp in Bly, Oregon between June 2000 and December 2001.

The former imam at Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, is currently serving a seven year sentence for incitement to murder and stirring up racial hatred but is due for parole next year.

Haroon Rashid Aswat from Batley, West Yorkshire, was indicted as Abu Hamza’s co conspirator in respect of the training camp.

Ahmad, Ahsan and Abu Hamza face life sentences without parole and Aswat a maximum of 50 years in jail - meaning he would be nearly 78 before becoming eligible for release.

Ahmad and Ahsan are currently held Long Lartin jail in Worcestershire while Hamza is in Belmarsh in South East London and Aswat at Broadmoor secure mental hospital

The court was made up of ten judges including one from Britain and others from Poland, Malta, Bosnia, Iceland, Albania, Moldova, Slovakia, Finland and Montenegro.